Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Goodbye Messenger, hello Skype

Today was a sad day for the masochist. Microsoft has announced that it is officially
pulling the plug on Windows Live Messenger on March 15th in favor of its latest
acquisition, Skype. While not much of an
improvement the cries of the old guard of Internet social interaction bemoan
the transition to a platform seemingly made worse by Microsoft's acquisition.

Skype has become a staple of streaming podcasts in the past
few years which while buggy was still adequate for real time interaction. Once Microsoft picked it up for a cool 8.5 billion in 2011 it was obvious that it was to be the centerpiece of a new
social strategy. To that point,
disparate applications usually woefully lacking left those in the Microsoft
centric universe looking elsewhere.

Of course as with any new acquisition Microsoft had to put
their stamp on it. A move that many podcasters
(the most vocal group) found irritating if not debilitating. Many of whom refused to upgrade from the
Pre-Microsoft version of the application when "new" features
effectively locked them out of their livelihood.

It was still better than Live Messenger though. A leftover from the days when AOL's instant
Messenger (AIM) was the de facto IM client of record. As it aged, it became the foundation for
Microsoft's Office Communications manager (Lync) for corporate centered
messaging. For casual users it could be
counted on to fail at inopportune moments often forcing a reboot to regain
functionality.

Skype can make (mostly) free phone calls too, a feature
messenger could never hope to achieve on its creaky underpinnings. If we want
to peer into our crystal ball, it's not
inconceivable for Microsoft to be eyeing Skype as a professional VOIP
solution. That would provide them with a
viable alternative to offerings from companies like Cisco and RingCentral. Not unlike the DirectAccess product meant to
replace VPN's from Cisco and Checkpoint.

If you were wondering why Microsoft has decided to put
Messenger out to pasture, look no further than the balance sheet. Messenger's features are free for the most
part, Skype's are not. Even with free
accounts, regular use eventually demands a credit card with subtle reminders in
the app of how much better your life would be if you'd just "upgrade"
your experience to the paid version.

So while today spelled out mandatory retirement for our
cranky old social companion, we can look forward to the equal annoyance of
Skype to salve (or open) our wounds.